SYSUPDATE.FEATURES(5)

NAME
sysupdate.features - Definition Files for Optional Features

SYNOPSIS

    /etc/sysupdate.d/*.feature
    /run/sysupdate.d/*.feature
    /usr/local/lib/sysupdate.d/*.feature
    /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/*.feature

DESCRIPTION

"Optional Features" are functionality provided by systemd-sysupdate(8), that allow a distribution to define sets of sysupdate.d(5) transfer definitions that are intended to be enabled or disabled by the system administrator.

When a feature is enabled, transfers belonging to it will be considered when checking for and downloading updates, when vacuuming, and in all other situations. In effect, transfers belonging to a feature will always be updated in lock-step with the rest of their target. This is the primary difference an Optional Feature and a systemd-sysupdate(8) component. When a feature is disabled, its transfers will not be considered when checking for and downloading updates, but systemd-sysupdate will still consider them while vacuuming and in other situations where it needs to determine ownership over previously downloaded system resources. systemd-sysupdate will clean up all instances of the feature's transfers whenever it is disabled, effectively uninstalling it.

Optional Features are described by sysupdate.d/*.feature files, which are defined below. Transfers can declare that they belong to a feature via the Features= setting. Feature definitions support drop-in files, which are most commonly used to override the Enabled= setting. They can also be masked to hide the availability of the feature entirely.

Each *.feature file contains one section: [Feature].

[FEATURE] SECTION OPTIONS

This section defines general properties of this feature.

Description=
    A short human-readable description of this feature. This may be used as a label for this feature, so the string should meaningfully identify the feature among the features available in sysupdate.d/.

    Added in version 257.

Documentation=
    A user-presentable URL to documentation about this feature. This setting supports specifier expansion; see below for details on supported specifiers.

    Added in version 257.

AppStream=
    A URL to an AppStream catalog[1] XML file. This may be used by software centers (such as GNOME Software or KDE Discover) to present rich metadata about this feature. This includes display names, changelogs, icons, and more. This setting supports specifier expansion; see below for details on supported specifiers.

    Added in version 257.

Enabled=
    Whether or not this feature is enabled. If unspecified, the feature is disabled by default.

    Added in version 257.

SPECIFIERS

Specifiers may be used in the Documentation= and AppStream= settings. The following expansions are understood:

Table 1. Specifiers available
Specifier | Meaning | Details
"%a" | Architecture | A short string identifying the architecture of the local system. A string such as x86, x86-64 or arm64. See the architectures defined for ConditionArchitecture= in systemd.unit(5) for a full list.
"%A" | Operating system image version | The operating system image version identifier of the running system, as read from the IMAGE_VERSION= field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves to an empty string. See os-release(5) for more information.
"%b" | Boot ID | The boot ID of the running system, formatted as string. See random(4) for more information.
"%B" | Operating system build ID | The operating system build identifier of the running system, as read from the BUILD_ID= field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves to an empty string. See os-release(5) for more information.
"%H" | Host name | The hostname of the running system.
"%l" | Short host name | The hostname of the running system, truncated at the first dot to remove any domain component.
"%m" | Machine ID | The machine ID of the running system, formatted as string. See machine-id(5) for more information.
"%M" | Operating system image identifier | The operating system image identifier of the running system, as read from the IMAGE_ID= field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves to an empty string. See os-release(5) for more information.
"%o" | Operating system ID | The operating system identifier of the running system, as read from the ID= field of /etc/os-release. See os-release(5) for more information.
"%v" | Kernel release | Identical to uname -r output.
"%w" | Operating system version ID | The operating system version identifier of the running system, as read from the VERSION_ID= field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves to an empty string. See os-release(5) for more information.
"%W" | Operating system variant ID | The operating system variant identifier of the running system, as read from the VARIANT_ID= field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves to an empty string. See os-release(5) for more information.
"%T" | Directory for temporary files | This is either /tmp or the path "$TMPDIR", "$TEMP" or "$TMP" are set to. (Note that the directory may be specified without a trailing slash.)
"%V" | Directory for larger and persistent temporary files | This is either /var/tmp or the path "$TMPDIR", "$TEMP" or "$TMP" are set to. (Note that the directory may be specified without a trailing slash.)
"%%" | Single percent sign | Use "%%" in place of "%" to specify a single percent sign.

EXAMPLES

Example 1. Development Tools for Image-Based OS

We'll use the hypothetical "foobarOS" described in sysupdate.d(5) as our example base OS. The vast majority of foobarOS's users have no need for a compiler, build system, debugger, and other such development tools to be part of their OS. However, the developers of foobarOS itself need this build tooling to be available. So, foobarOS needs to provide a system extension image (see systemd-sysext(8)) containing these development tools, and this image must be updated in lock-step with the underlying base OS. This is a great use case for an optional OS feature, so let's define one:

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/devel.feature
    [Feature]
    Description=Development Tools
    Documentation=https://developer.example.com/foobarOS/getting-started
    Enabled=false

The above defines the "devel" feature, and disables it by default. Now let's define a transfer that's associated with this feature:

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/50-devel.transfer
    [Transfer]
    Features=devel
    ProtectVersion=%A
    [Source]
    Type=url-file
    Path=https://download.example.com/
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_devel.raw.xz
    [Target]
    Type=regular-file
    Path=/var/lib/extensions
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_devel.raw
    Mode=0444
    InstancesMax=2

With these two files, we have created a feature called "devel" that, when enabled, will download and decompress the appropriate version of "https://download.example.com/foobarOS_@v_devel.raw.xz" into "/var/lib/extensions/foobarOS_@v_devel.raw" during each OS update.

The developers of foobarOS can enable the "devel" feature on their workstations by creating the following drop-in:

    # /etc/sysupdate.d/devel.feature.d/enable.conf
    [Feature]
    Enabled=true

Example 2. Proprietary Drivers

Suppose that many of foobarOS's users have a GPU manufactured by the MVISUAL corporation. Due to lack of documentation and difficulty in reverse-engineering the hardware, the open-source drivers for MVISUAL GPUs are unable to make proper use of available graphics and compute performance. MVISUAL provides a redistributable proprietary driver for their cards, and foobarOS's developers distribute them to address their users' needs.

MVISUAL's driver has a couple different parts that must be installed for it to function: a UKI addon to configure the kernel command-line, an initrd system extension image to add the MVISUAL kernel module into the initrd, and a regular system extension image to add the proprietary OpenGL and Vulkan userspace drivers. All of these should be version-locked to the core OS.

Let's start by defining an optional feature named "mvisual-driver":

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/mvisual-driver.feature
    [Feature]
    Description=MVISUAL Proprietary GPU Driver
    Documentation=https://support.example.com/foobarOS/mvisual
    AppStream=https://metadata.example.com/mvisual-driver-%A.xml.gz

Note that we define AppStream metadata for this feature, because we want software centers to present it to end-users. Next, let's define the corresponding transfers:

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/50-mvisual-userspace.transfer
    [Transfer]
    Features=mvisual-driver
    ProtectVersion=%A
    [Source]
    Type=url-file
    Path=https://download.example.com/
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_mvisual_userspace.raw.xz
    [Target]
    Type=regular-file
    Path=/var/lib/extensions
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_mvisual.raw
    Mode=0444
    InstancesMax=2

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/70-mvisual-initrd.transfer
    [Transfer]
    Features=mvisual-driver
    ProtectVersion=%A
    [Source]
    Type=url-file
    Path=https://download.example.com/
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_mvisual_initrd.raw.xz
    [Target]
    Type=regular-file
    Path=/EFI/Linux
    PathRelativeTo=boot
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v.efi.extra.d/foobarOS_mvisual.raw
    Mode=0444
    InstancesMax=2

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/90-mvisual-addon.transfer
    [Transfer]
    Features=mvisual-driver
    ProtectVersion=%A
    [Source]
    Type=url-file
    Path=https://download.example.com/
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_mvisual_addon.efi.xz
    [Target]
    Type=regular-file
    Path=/EFI/Linux
    PathRelativeTo=boot
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v.efi.extra.d/foobarOS_mvisual.addon.efi
    Mode=0444
    InstancesMax=2

Example 3. Intersecting Features

Suppose that MVISUAL releases special tooling to help a distribution developer troubleshoot crashes in their proprietary driver. Let's define a transfer:

    # /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/50-mvisual-debugger.transfer
    [Transfer]
    RequisiteFeatures=devel mvisual-driver
    ProtectVersion=%A
    [Source]
    Type=url-file
    Path=https://download.example.com/
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_devel.raw.xz
    [Target]
    Type=regular-file
    Path=/var/lib/extensions
    MatchPattern=foobarOS_@v_devel.raw
    Mode=0444
    InstancesMax=2

This transfer will be used only if both the "devel" and "mvisual-driver" features are enabled.

SEE ALSO

systemd(1), systemd-sysupdate(8), sysupdate.d(5)

NOTES

1.  AppStream catalog
    https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/chap-CatalogData.html